I. Introduction

The IATE (InterActive Terminology for Europe) website (http://iate.europa.eu) provides access to the online terminology database of the European Union. The project was initiated in 1999, and it has been used since 2004 by various EU institutions. The database consists of approximately 1.4 million multilingual records that include 8.4 million terms, resulting from the combination of earlier terminology databases such as Eurodicautom, TIS, Euterpe, Euroterms and CDCTERM. It is open to public and users can look up terminology in the official languages of the EU.

IV. Doing a simple search for term records

Search for the term mondialisation.

In the Search term field, type mondialisation;

In the Source language drop-down menu, set the source language to French.

Click on the Search button.

The results page will list entries that contain your search query under domain headings. You will see source language terms and their target language equivalents for the languages that you specified in your search preferences.

Scroll down to take a look at matching entries. Ten entries per page will be listed. You can look at the subsequent pages by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking on the link for the page number. (See Note 1.)

V. Getting familiar with the term record format

The search returns the set of records for terms that contain mondialisation. The search results are organized according to domain and language. (See Note 2.)

On the right side of the search results screen, there are icons that indicate the content of the term records. (See Note 3.)

The stars (see screenshot) indicate the reliability rating of the term. If you hover the cursor over the icon, a message will tell you how reliable the record is.

The reference icon (see screenshot) indicates that the term record includes a reference. If you hover the cursor over the icon, the reference will be displayed.

The context icon (see screenshot) indicates that the term record includes a context in which the term is used. If you hover the cursor over the icon, the context will be displayed.

The term note icon (see screenshot) indicates that the term record includes a note about the term. If you hover the cursor over the icon, the note will be displayed.

The definition icon (see screenshot) indicates that the term record includes a definition for the term. If you hover the cursor over the icon, the definition will be displayed.

Click on Full entry to display the full term record in the languages you have chosen.

The entry details page displays all the information stored in the term record, such as domain, definition, reliability notes, context, date, etc.

The list of Other languages near the top of the screen also provides access to information in other languages on this record.

You can navigate through the series of records by clicking on Next entry or Previous entry.

You can go back to the results page by clicking on the Back to results link, or back to the main page by clicking on the Search Screen link.

You can give feedback to IATE regarding any entry by clicking on the Feedback link.

VI. Conducting more advanced searches for term records

Search for credit union within the finance domain.

Go to the main page by clicking on the Search Screen link.

Type credit union in the search field.

Select English from the Source language drop-down menu.

In the Optional criteria section, select 24 – FINANCE from the Choose the domain associated with your query drop-down menu.

Click the Search button. What results do you find?

Results will include all term records within the selected domain that include the terms entered in the search box, regardless of the order in which they occur or whether other lexical items come between them (e.g. International Union of Credit and Investment Insurers). (See Note 4.)

Search for the abbreviation ECHR within the law domain. (See Note 5.)

Go to the main page by clicking on the Search Screen link.

Type ECHR in the search field.

Select English from the Source language drop-down menu and, if necessary, choose your target language(s) from the Target languages list.

In the Optional criteria section, select 12—LAW from the Choose the domain associated with your query drop-down menu.

Click the Search button. What results do you find? How are they different from those of a “normal” search?

Use quotation marks (“”) to search for multi-word terms, respecting the order in which multiple strings are entered.

In the Optional criteria section, be sure to set the Choose the domain associated with your query drown-down menu selection back to Any domain.

Click the Search button. What results do you find? How are they different from those of a “normal” search?

Do a wildcard search using an asterisk (*) to replace one or many characters at the end of a word.

Return to the main page by clicking Search Screen.

Type com* system in the search box.

Click on the Search button. What results do you find?

When would this type of search be useful? When/Why might it be frustrating?

Do a wildcard search using an underscore (_) to replace any single character. (See Note 6.)

Return to the main page by clicking Search Screen.

Type globali_ation in the search box.

Click on the Search button. What results do you find?

When would this type of search be useful? When/Why might it be frustrating?

VI. Wrapping up

Close the browser window.

NOTE 1: You can go back to the main page by clicking on Search Screen, or you can simply enter a new search term into the search box on the results page to conduct a new search using the same settings.

NOTE 2: The “domain” field also indicates the body for which the term is relevant in square brackets (e.g. COM – European Commission; Council – Council of the European Union, etc.). Hovering the cursor over the short forms will display the full title.

NOTE 3: You can click on the icons to display the corresponding information. To get back to the list of results, click on Back to results.

Screenshot coming soon.

NOTE 4: IATE Search neutralizes your search string. In other words, it is not sensitive to capital letters and accents or special characters.

NOTE 5: IATE remembers your last 10 searches. You can re-run these searches from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the main page (Your last 10 queries), by selecting the query you want to run and then clicking the Search button.

NOTE 6: This wildcard character is relatively specific to IATE. In many other tools, you would use a question mark (?) to replace a single character.

VIII. Questions for reflection

As you did these exercises, what did you notice about how IATE works?

What could IATE help you to do? In what kind of situation?

What criteria can be used to evaluate online term banks?

How does IATE compare to others in the same class, e.g. TERMIUM or the Grand dictionnaire terminologique?

What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using this tool to search for terminology in bilingual or multilingual records? Compared to a manual approach? Compared to using another tool?